It’s times like this that make me realize that my anxiety (and potential PTSD?) is definitely higher than normal.
Potential apartment inspection today. We are not ready. I had two days off this week from my part-time job that I usually don’t have, so I had already decided to spend them trying to clean our diaster of an apartment when we got the notice that there would be random inspections on Wednesday. Now my whole idea of cleaning properly and the way I want is thrown out the window because of the inspection.
I have been cleaning for almost 36 hours straight now (with a few breaks to drop my extra animals off at the hospital to hide, etc) and I am not even done with the living room. This new vacuum that ScareCrow’s mom bought us for Yule last year is awful—I wish I had my old one back; it doesn’t really pick up and then it spits out all kinds of dust. I’m hoping maybe it’s just that the filter needs to be cleaned (which I can’t do right now) and not that the entire vacuum is a loss. Morla’s tank is still soaking. I need to wash the walls because there is nasty bug junk all over them, etc.
The upstairs is maybe not as filthy, but is super cluttered. I don’t know how I’m going to attack that.
So, it’s made worse by my stupid anxiety. I don’t feel comfortable walking to the dumpster/trash compactor during the day because the last time I was cleaning, some maintenance guy harassed me there. Like, I got in trouble for throwing away my garbage?? It wasn’t like I was leaving it piled in front of the dumpster, or not using the compactor or what have you. So now I can only take out my garbage at night. That’s a BIG pain in the ass when you’re deep cleaning everything and you’re battling a cockroach infestation.
I also spend the entire day listening to noises that a normal person would not take notice of. Is that the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs to my apartment? Why is that person so loud? Are they getting evicted?? Am I next? Is that the sound of my truck being stolen again? Etc. I try to play music or put something on the TV to distract me, but it only works so well. And, if I catch a glimpse of a person outside (difficult to do because I keep my shades drawn), then I hyper-focus on them; are they coming to knock on my door? Are they telling management that I have more pets than I should?? Etc.
Absolute craziness. I can’t make it stop.
It doesn’t help that any real knocks at the door actually put me into a panic attack.
When did I become so crazy?
This is the kind of thing that I feel like other people need to know to really understand where I’m coming from when I say I am anxious or am freaking out or whatever, but even I think that it sounds nuts.
If there were a medication or a procedure or something that would make this stop, I would gladly take it. I am miserable.